The present invention relates to a radio communications system, in particular of the GSM type (global system for mobile communications), or of the DCS type (digital cellular system), or indeed of the PCS type (personal communication system).
More particularly, the invention relates to a method enabling graphic animation to be displayed on a screen of a piece of mobile radio communications equipment at the request of a subscriber identity module connected to said equipment.
The GSM recommendations of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) recommend using a subscriber identity module (SIM) for storing both data specific to the user and data relating to additional services which it supplies to the radio communications terminal.
ETSI recommendation GSM 11.11 entitled Digital cellular telecommunications system (phase 2+); specification of the subscriber identity modulexe2x80x94mobile equipment (SIM-ME) interface defines the interface between the subscriber identity module (SIM) and the mobile equipment (ME).
ETSI recommendation GSM 11.14 entitled Digital cellular telecommunications system (phase 2+); specification of the SIM application toolkit for the subscriber identity modulexe2x80x94mobile equipment (SIM-ME) interface defines the way in which applications (or services) stored in the subscriber identity module (SIM) are to communicate with the mobile equipment (ME).
In particular, that recommendation describes a set of functions known as xe2x80x9cproactivexe2x80x9d functions that the subscriber identity module can send to the mobile equipment.
The additional services which are stored in the subscriber identity module can be of different kinds and at different levels. By way of example, the following can be mentioned:
a service for storing data of the telephone directory type;
a service for sending and receiving short alphanumeric messages (xe2x80x9cSMSxe2x80x9d in GSM terminology for short message service); and
a service for displaying alphanumeric data on the screen of the mobile equipment.
The advantage of operating in that way is that services and equipment types are made independent. It is then possible to make use of services offered by a subscriber identity module from any piece of radio communications equipment, i.e. independently of the manufacturer thereof.
Nevertheless, in the state of the art, it turns out that it is not possible to display an animated image sequence on the screen of a terminal from a subscriber identity module.
In the context of the GSM 11.11 and GSM 11.14 recommendations, the only option available to the subscriber identity module for displaying information on the screen of the terminal is to present a DISPLAY TEXT command.
The present invention seeks to mitigate a gap in the state of the art by enabling a subscriber identity module to display a sequence of images on the screen of a radio communications terminal.
For this purpose, the invention provides a method of displaying a sequence of images on the display means associated with a piece of radio communications mobile equipment co-operating with a subscriber identity module, the method comprising the following steps in order:
said subscriber identity module sends an image sequence display command to said mobile equipment; and
said mobile equipment executes said command on said display means.
In order to implement the method, the invention also provides a radio communications system comprising a subscriber identity module co-operating with a piece of mobile equipment possessing display means, said subscriber identity module having means for sending a command for displaying a sequence of images to said mobile equipment, and said mobile equipment having means for executing said command on said display means.